Painting of William Augustus Bowles

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General Note

Bowles came to Florida at the age of 12, lived with the Indians and married the daughter of Chief Perryman. He was twice imprisoned for trying to break the Spaniards hold on east and west Florida. He died while imprisoned in Morro Castle in 1805.

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Biography Note

William Augustus Bowles was born in Maryland about 1763 and fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. He later married a Creek Indian woman and proclaimed himself "Director General of the Muscogee Nation." In 1792, he attacked the Panton, Leslie & Company trading post on the Wakulla River. Bowles was apprehended by Spanish authorities and imprisoned in the Philippines. He later escaped and in April 1800 seized control of the Spanish Fuerte San Marcos de Apalache. The Spanish captured Bowles again in 1803. He died in the Castillo Morro in Havana, Cuba in 1805.

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